Making a drama out of cold coffee and empty suitcases

Production designers go to huge lengths to make the sets on television shows realistic. So I am the only one who can’t quite believe that when a suitcase or something similar is needed for a scene, props teams almost always let actors carry very obviously empty ones around during filming? I’ve just seen it a couple of times in one episode of the BBC One drama Inside Men. It looks quite ridiculous and I can’t believe it’s because actors can’t cope with carrying a bit of weight…

It was similar in The Bill with coffee. A character would get a boiling hot coffee straight from the Sun Hill drinks machine and would hold it firmly despite it being in one of those very flimsy plastic cups. So either people were only cast in The Bill if they had hands made asbestos or – as is more likely – the cups were empty!